This year’s proceedings at Augusta National are less than a month away, taking place April 8-11, but golf courses in Canada are getting a jump on the season long before the first men’s major of the year. Certainly, Southern Ontario was basking in springlike conditions last week under sunny skies and temperatures getting close to […]

Last week, Golf Canada held a virtual annual general meeting while the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association held its Canadian Golf Course Management Conference. This week, the National Golf Course Owners Association of Canada is hosting the virtual Ontario Golf Expo consumer show, after a similar event in British Columbia recently and an upcoming virtual show […]

The most annoying term used in media these days is the term “expert,” as it applies to COVID-19. No disrespect is meant towards the medical community or public health officials with that statement. It’s just that we’re about a year into into the pandemic and coronavirus is something we’ve never dealt with, even if there […]

At the end of January, the GNN Poll asked readers if the golf operation where they work planned to start hiring for the season, or hold off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, 57 per cent of respondents indicated that their employer was holding off, with 43 per cent saying that hiring would […]

Just a day after Tuesday’s column here that both the RBC Canadian Open and local and sectional U.S. Open qualifiers in Canada this year are in a precarious situations comes word that specifically seems destined to affect our national championship. The City of Toronto has cancelled all city-permitted outdoor events up to and including Canada […]

The USGA must have some a couple of Plan Bs up its sleeve, or at least a pipeline into Canada’s federal government that assures golf will somehow be exempt from recent COVID–19 travel restrictions in the next few months. That last one seems unlikely after Canadians caught by the new restrictions either changed plans or […]

It is believed that enough Canadians will get their vaccinations to establish the “herd immunity” that’s required to return life in this country to normal, but that remains to be seen. It’s your turn now. Should agreeing to take COVID–19 vaccination be a condition of employment in the golf industry?

With golf being deemed a safe sport to play with proper safety protocols in place last year, the experience in 2020 would seemingly make it all systems go into this season, the second during the coronavirus pandemic. With that in mind, is golf necessarily bulletproof against COVID–19, if the “third wave” is as bad as some predict?

The only problem I have with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is use of the term GOAT to describe him. With seven Super Bowls to his credit, more than any NFL franchise, there are few who could legitimately argue the claim that Brady is the Greatest Of All Time, the title that led to […]

As I mentioned in this column last week, the R&A and USGA are reaching out to the golf industry for feedback on areas of interest and changes to proposed equipment standards as part of their joint Distance Insights project. You can see last week’s joint statement from the governing bodies here. Judging by the reactions […]